Page 89 of Stormhold

“What do I have to do with your revenge on the White Hand, Arkane?” My voice came out so broken that it reflected in his eyes, and something flashed in those grays that I couldn’t read. But now, understanding that feeling didn’t matter anymore.

“My father didn’t agree to the truce at first, and it turned into a full-blown war between us. We were so close to wiping them out when, somehow, they managed to stop us. That day, everything was going wrong. All our guns were jammed, the signal was cut off, and my mother was acting weird the whole time. That night, men barged into our safe house, and almost as if she was the target, they took her out first.”

“She knew something?”

He nodded. “I don’t know what, but it’s possible that she discovered who the traitor…the White Hand was. Only our inner circle knew the safe house’s location, and there was no chance that the Covent carried out the attack without the insider’s help.” His lips thinned. “After that day, my father became a weak man. Instead of putting an end to his brother, he agreed to their demands. Not wanting to lose another, he accepted his fate in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”

I frowned, still not understanding what it had to do with me.

His eyes met mine, reading the confusion there, and he said, “And the person who decoded it for Kenny was your mother, Bella.”

Disbelief flooded my veins. “My mother?” Suddenly, something Heath Glen told my mother that night, thirteen years ago, flashed in my head. I specifically remembered him demanding that she give him the SS codes. My mother was a computer genius, a renowned professor in the field, so I thought it was some code or software she created that held value. I didn’t think much about what SS could mean, but now I think it had a different meaning altogether. It meant Sanctum Sollus.

I shook my head. “No, my mother never would’ve worked for someone like Kenny.”

“You’re right,” he said. “Heath Glen tricked her into it, posing as an investor for her research. The more she decoded, the more she realized its danger and backed away from the project. But somehow, they figured out that she decoded the entire thing. Instead of asking nicely, they did what they did,” he revealed.

So that was it. The reason I lost my family. The one question that had been plaguing my mind for years had finally been answered. The why. “Your family is the reason I lost mine,” I whispered.

“In a way, yes,” he said grimly.

I inhaled sharply. It felt like pins and needles. “You could’ve just told me, Arkane.”

“I wanted you to figure it out by yourself.” He paused, tilting his head as he watched me. “More so, I wanted to see if you knew anything about it.”

“Why?” I whispered.

“The code your mother gave them that night wasn’t even half of it. Heath screwed up, and by the time he figured it out, he thought your entire family was gone. All these years, they’ve been searching for that file, which is why the White Hand is still hiding. He wants the codes just as bad.”

“Then what did they show your father?”

“The dummy they retrieved that night; my father foolishly believed it. If only he had looked closer, it would’ve been obvious they were lying, and there would be no truce or the Covent right now, for that matter.”

“But why now?”

“Because I told the legion the truth and made a deal to give me six months to retrieve the codes and destroy them. If I failed, my family would lose power, and the East would go to the White Hand. And if the Covent failed, the legion would help me put an end to them once and for all. And the Twins will remain mine.”

No wonder the Covent and the White Hand were doing everything in their power to turn the tide in their favor.

“And now you and the traitor both want the code, which is why this fight restarted after all these years,” I said, getting the picture. “And whoever gets it first will decide the fate of the Twins.”

Arkane nodded. “Yes.

“So where is it? The real code?”

Arkane exhaled, looking dead in my eyes. “With you.”

My eyes widened. “Me?”

He slowly nodded. “We backtracked the codes to your mother, only to find the entire Queen family was long gone. But our Valerian associate confirmed you and your sisters were still alive under their protective order and living in Twins, no less. Call that a coincidence,” he muttered. “But I still found nothing after searching every inch of your lives. I had a feeling your mother wasn’t someone to leave it with just anyone. The only possibility was you, so I took a risk and made you my friend.”

“You took a risk?” I laughed. Only it came out as empty as I felt right now.

He said nothing and just stood there. My eyes remained fixed on his face. There was a certain void in his eyes, but other than that, his face gave nothing away. Did I truly even know the man I had opened my heart to? Did he even show me an ounce of his real self, or was it all just an act? I didn’t know if I wanted an answer to that question right this moment or ever at all. In the end, I was a mere chess piece in his game. A game I had no clue was about me all along.

My mind blurred with everything he said. He was just stringing me along in this wonderland of a rabbit hole that he cherry-picked for me. The realization had something heavy settle in my chest, so heavy that it felt like I was breathing cold stones. At the end of it, I felt how insignificant I really was in his life. And sadness was the only emotion I felt. Like I cared about some codes or power games. At this point, all I felt was a low buzz that cloaked me like a shadow.

“Why the lies, Arkane?” This time, I didn’t hide the tremble in my voice.